The Internet We Deserve

As governments, academics, and entrepreneurs continue to debate regulatory and economic solutions to the myriad of perceived ills of today’s Internet, and as technology experts proclaim the dawn of an entirely new era thanks to AI, The Internet We Deserve lecture series will explore a portion of the Internet that provides a fresh perspective and much needed context: its history. 

Hosted by the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University in partnership with the Khoury College of Computer Science and moderated by Burnes Center Senior Fellow John Battelle, the series will feature notable business, policy, technology and academic leaders who have been central to the creation of the Internet as we know it today.

The series will kick-off in January 2024 with a conversation with Vinton Cerf, co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet, who currently is the Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google.  The conversation, “How the History of the Internet Could Inform the Future of Democracy and AI,” is part of the Burnes Center’s ongoing lecture series, “Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI.”

By focusing on lessons and insights that can inform present-day dilemmas in Internet governance, The Internet We Deserve will explore major topics including the rise of the early academic and commercial Internet in the United States, the dot com bubble and subsequent bust, key technological sea changes from search and social media to the evolution and rise of Generative AI. 

The series will consist of both in-person and virtual talks.

Additional guests and locations to be confirmed in the coming weeks.